Safety

School Bus Driver to be Cited in Crash With Truck

SOUTH HARRISON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A school bus driver will be cited for their involvement in a crash with a tractor-trailer that injured 14 students and the tractor-trailer driver on Monday, authorities said.

The driver, whose name has not been released, was taking 22 students home from the Gloucester County Institute of Technology at approximately 3:20 p.m. when the bus, owned by Holcomb Bus Co., collided with a tractor-trailer carrying sand, according to a news release from the school. Fourteen students were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Preliminary police reports state that the driver of the tractor-trailer was taken to the hospital in critical condition, according to WTXF.

WTXF reported on Monday that preliminary police reports stated that the bus driver was traveling westbound on Ferrell Rd. when it came to a stop sign. Lt. Sean Weston from the South Harrison Township Police Department told the news source that the tractor-trailer was traveling westbound on Monroeville Rd. and the driver tried to make a left turn onto that road. Both vehicles then went off the road, according to WTXF.

James Lavender, superintendent of the Kingsway Regional School District, told the Cherry Hill Courier-Post that the truck hit the rear quarter panel of the bus before it left the road, veered into some trees, and overturned. A haz-mat team was sent out because the impact caused diesel fuel to leak from the tractor-trailer, according to the news release from Gloucester County Institute of Technology.

On Tuesday, WTXF reported that the bus driver is facing citations in the crash, and apparently didn’t see the tractor-trailer coming.